]]>Ven. Frances Mitra Bishop-sensei is a Zen teacher and Dharma heir of Ven. Philip Kapleau-roshi (who she trained with beginning in 1976). In 1996, Lola Lee, Osho, who passed away in 1997, asked the Ven. Mitra Bishop-sensei to guide her students in their practice. Beginning Zen practice in 1974, Mitra-sensei is a Dharma heir of Ven. Philip Kapleau-roshi. Ordained as a Zen priest in 1986, she completed her formal training at the Rochester Zen Center. In 1992 she went to Okayama, Japan, where she continued to practice under the guidance of the Ven. Harada Shodo-roshi, Abbot of Sogen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple. When Mitra-sensei returned to the United States in 1996, she was formally sanctioned to teach by Kapleau-roshi, and in that same year was asked to come to Hidden Valley Zen Center to teach. Concurrently, she established Mountain Gate, a monastic practice center in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Taking the admonition, “There’s no beginning to enlightenment, no end to practice,” to heart, she continues to train intensively with Harada-roshi, including spending several weeks each year at Sōgen-ji.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/mitra-bishop-bio/feed/0Gally, Gerardohttp://sweepingzen.com/gally-gerardo/
http://sweepingzen.com/gally-gerardo/#commentsSat, 23 Oct 2010 04:18:00 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=11058This biography is currently not listed on Sweeping Zen. Feel free to add it to the database. *Note: If you are not the subject or a representative, please write the biography in your own words. Copying materials from another website without express permission will result in the entry not being updated. Bio in brief Authorizing ...

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Can you help improve this entry? If so, please make your correction or expansion in the comments section below. If deemed accurate, we’ll include the information in the piece.

Bio in brief

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/gally-gerardo/feed/0Gifford, Dane Zensonhttp://sweepingzen.com/gifford-dane-zenson/
http://sweepingzen.com/gifford-dane-zenson/#commentsTue, 01 Mar 2011 09:49:34 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=23496This biography is currently not listed on Sweeping Zen. Feel free to add it to the database. *Note: If you are not the subject or a representative, please write the biography in your own words. Copying materials from another website without express permission will result in the entry not being updated.

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]]>http://sweepingzen.com/gifford-dane-zenson/feed/0Goldmann, Roberthttp://sweepingzen.com/goldmann-robert/
http://sweepingzen.com/goldmann-robert/#commentsSat, 23 Oct 2010 04:24:25 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=11062This biography is currently not listed on Sweeping Zen. Feel free to add it to the database. *Note: If you are not the subject or a representative, please write the biography in your own words. Copying materials from another website without express permission will result in the entry not being updated.

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]]>http://sweepingzen.com/goldmann-robert/feed/0Graef, Sunyanahttp://sweepingzen.com/10647/
http://sweepingzen.com/10647/#commentsMon, 18 Oct 2010 16:06:44 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=10647Sensei Sunyana Graef (May 29, 1948) is the founder and teacher of the Vermont Zen Center. She began her practice of Zen Buddhism in 1969 as a disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Sensei Graef was born in Boston in 1948 and grew up in New York. In the sixties, she studied religion and philosophy at ...

]]>Sensei Sunyana Graef (May 29, 1948) is the founder and teacher of the Vermont Zen Center. She began her practice of Zen Buddhism in 1969 as a disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Sensei Graef was born in Boston in 1948 and grew up in New York. In the sixties, she studied religion and philosophy at Bard College, until beginning her Zen training at the Rochester Zen Center.

Sensei spent over nine years on the staff of the Rochester Zen Center. She was ordained as a priest in 1986 and sanctioned as a Dharma Heir of Roshi Kapleau a year later. With her husband, Jed, and two daughters, Kaila and Dana, she moved to Vermont in June of 1988 to establish the Zen Center in Shelburne.

Since 1988, Sensei Graef has also been the teacher of the Casa Zen of Costa Rica. For ten years she was the teacher of the Toronto Zen Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In 2004 she sanctioned her first Dharma Heir, Sensei Taigen Henderson, who is now the teacher of the Toronto Centre.

]]>Daiun Sogaku Harada (October 13, 1871—December 12, 1961) is the ancestral forefather to the Sanbo-Kyodan lineage. The Sanbo Kyodan is a lay organization of Zen practice combining elements of the Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen traditions established by Harada’s student and eventual Dharma successor, Haku’un Yasutani.

Throughout his Zen training Harada was exposed to both the Soto and Rinzai approaches to Zen practice, shikantaza and koan introspection. Western Zen teacher Philip Kapleau studied with Harada for three years at Hosshinji before going on to study with his successor, Yasutani.

Biography

Daiun Sogaku Harada was born on October 13, 1871 in Obama, Japan. He became a novice at a Sōtō Zen temple at age seven and continued his Zen training on through high school. At age twenty Harada entered the well-known Rinzai Zen monastery, Shogen-ji, where Harada experienced a deep kensho during his two and a half year stay.

He graduated from Komazawa University, a Soto Zen university, in 1901. He studied with various Japanese Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen masters, including Harada Sodo Kakusho, Oka Sotan, Akino Kodo, Adachi Tatsujun, Hoshimi Tenkai, Unmunken Taigi Sogon, and Kogenshitsu Dokutan Sosan. From 1911 to 1923 Harada held a professorship at his alma mater Komazawa University, which was then called Daigakurin. He served as abbot of various Soto Zen temples, including Hosshin-ji, Chizai-in, Ankoku-ji, Hoon-ji and Chigen-ji.

Dharma Successors

Harada roshi left behind several Dharma successors, with Haku’un Yasutani undoubtedly being the most prominent one. The following individuals are known to have received Dharma transmission from Yasutani roshi:

References

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/harada-daiun-sogaku-bio/feed/0Henderson, Taigenhttp://sweepingzen.com/taigen-henderson-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/taigen-henderson-bio/#commentsSat, 26 Dec 2009 05:32:25 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=2570Sensei Taigen Henderson (born 1949) is a Dharma heir of Sensei Sunyana Graef and continues to practice with her. His first taste of Buddhism came in Sri Lanka as he was growing up this led to later discovery of Zen. He began with the Toronto Zen Centre in the days when it was a Rochester ...

]]>Sensei Taigen Henderson (born 1949) is a Dharma heir of Sensei Sunyana Graef and continues to practice with her. His first taste of Buddhism came in Sri Lanka as he was growing up this led to later discovery of Zen. He began with the Toronto Zen Centre in the days when it was a Rochester Zen Center affiliate and continued to practice there through the years. In 2004 he was ordained and was asked to become the teacher at the TZC in 2005.

*Biography submitted by subject.

Pronounce Name

Can you help improve this entry? If so, please make your correction or expansion in the comments section below. If deemed accurate, we’ll include the information in the piece.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/taigen-henderson-bio/feed/0Henry, Michael Dananhttp://sweepingzen.com/michael-danan-henry-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/michael-danan-henry-bio/#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 08:49:29 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=661Michael Danan Henry (born 1939) is a retired Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage who was spiritual director at the Zen Center of Denver in Colorado. He began his spiritual training in 1965 at the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York City. In 1975, he relocated to Rochester, New York, to become a student and disciple ...

]]>Michael Danan Henry (born 1939) is a retired Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage who was spiritual director at the Zen Center of Denver in Colorado. He began his spiritual training in 1965 at the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York City. In 1975, he relocated to Rochester, New York, to become a student and disciple of Philip Kapleau. He entered monastic training at the Rochester Zen Center in 1979 and was ordained a Zen priest in 1986. In 1987, he was granted inka (confirming his completion of koan study and formal training) and assumed teaching responsibilities. In 1989, Kapleau Roshi sanctioned Danan as a full teacher and spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver. Since 1990, Danan traveled frequently to Hawaii to continue his formal Zen training under the late Robert Aitken, who authorized Danan as a Diamond Sangha teacher.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/michael-danan-henry-bio/feed/0Kapleau, Philiphttp://sweepingzen.com/philip-kapleau-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/philip-kapleau-bio/#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 09:12:48 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=726Philip Kapleau (August 12, 1912—May 06, 2004) was an important Zen teacher to the West despite his having lacked any Dharma transmission. It should be noted, however, that he had trained with Haku’un Yasutani Roshi for more than a decade and that the roshi had authorized him to teach, albeit in a limited capacity. He ...

]]>Philip Kapleau (August 12, 1912—May 06, 2004) was an important Zen teacher to the West despite his having lacked any Dharma transmission. It should be noted, however, that he had trained with Haku’un Yasutani Roshi for more than a decade and that the roshi had authorized him to teach, albeit in a limited capacity. He is best known, perhaps, for authoring the classic The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment, a book published in 1965 that opened Zen practice up to a new generation here in the West. He founded the Rochester Zen Center as a strong center of practice and, while questionable to some due to his own lack of transmission, authorized various teachers who now continue the work of carrying on his important lineage. Widely respected and acknowledged as a Zen master, his independent status as a teacher of Zen raises considerable questions regarding teaching authority and dharma transmission. He semi-retired in 1987 and left most of the maintenance of Rochester Zen Center to his disciple, Bodhin Kjolhede. He spent his final years in ailing health due to Parkinson’s Disease, leaving him largely immobile.

Kapleau was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1912 and worked as a teen as a bookkeeper. Before coming to Zen practice he studied law and became a court reporter in the state and federal courts of Connecticut. At the conclusion of the Second World War, Kapleau was appointed as chief reporter for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg before later being sent to Japan to cover the International Tribunal for the Far East. It was in Japan that he developed an interest for Zen Buddhism, fueled in part by the peace he’d found while visiting temples and by some talks he’d attended given by the scholar D.T. Suzuki at Columbia University. In 1953, he left his stateside business for Japan to devote himself fully to the practice.

He first found himself at the Rinzai Zen temple of Ryutakuji, where Soen Nakagawa Roshi was abbot. He only spent six months there, leaving for Hoshinji, the temple of Daiun Sogaku Harada (who taught in a style that synthesized both Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen). Kapleau studied under Harada Roshi for the next three years and, when his health began to decline due to the harsh training regimen, Nakagawa Roshi took Kapleau to Haku’un Yasutani, where it was negotiated that he have independent living quarters while pursuing Zen practice as a householder, rather than as a monastic. The change of atmosphere helped Kapleau to regain his health and, within two years, he had his first kensho experience.

It was during these years spent training under Yasutani Roshi that Kapleau compiled the various notes that eventually became The Three Pillars of Zen (Yasutani allowed him to keep a journal in the dokusan room). He married and had a child and, after thirteen years of training with Yasutani in 1965, he was ordained a priest by him and granted limited authorization to teach stateside. That same year The Three Pillars of Zen was published and, in 1966, he established the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York, after being invited to teach meditation there while on a book tour. Years later Kapleau and Yasutani had a falling out. Some reports state it was a difference in opinion over how to train Western students while other sources have suggested it was due to Kapleau refusing to host a visit by Eido Tai Shimano, which Yasutani was greatly offended by. Whatever the source of the split, Yasutani simply skipped over a planned visit to Rochester one year and never resumed correspondence. He spent the next twenty-one years actively teaching until his semi-retirement in 1987, leaving the running of his center to Bodhin Kjolhede. After many years suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, he died on May 6, 2004 at age 91.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/philip-kapleau-bio/feed/0Kempe, Karinhttp://sweepingzen.com/karin-kempe-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/karin-kempe-bio/#commentsSat, 08 May 2010 00:43:18 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=8467Karin Ryuku Kempe Sensei is one of the three Spiritual Directors at the Zen Center of Denver and received dharma transmission in 2010 from the founder of the DZC, Danan Henry Roshi. The ZCD is a practice community in the lay tradition of the Diamond Sangha in the Harada-Yasutani line. Karin began practice at the ...

]]>Karin Ryuku Kempe Sensei is one of the three Spiritual Directors at the Zen Center of Denver and received dharma transmission in 2010 from the founder of the DZC, Danan Henry Roshi. The ZCD is a practice community in the lay tradition of the Diamond Sangha in the Harada-Yasutani line. Karin began practice at the Rochester Zen Center in 1971 first with Philip Kapleau Roshi and then with Toni Packer. After returning to Colorado, she practiced with Shishin Wick Roshi, Dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, at the Great Mountain Zen Center, receiving Jukai from him in 1997. Karin works as a family physician in clinical prevention.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/karin-kempe-bio/feed/0Kjolhede, Bodhinhttp://sweepingzen.com/bodhin-kjolhede-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/bodhin-kjolhede-bio/#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 09:26:53 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=755Bodhin Kjolhede Roshi has devoted himself to the Rochester Zen Center full-time since 1970. Prior to coming to the Center he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. He was ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1976 and went on to spend several years traveling extensively with the Center’s founder, Roshi Philip ...

]]>Bodhin Kjolhede Roshi has devoted himself to the Rochester Zen Center full-time since 1970. Prior to coming to the Center he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. He was ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1976 and went on to spend several years traveling extensively with the Center’s founder, Roshi Philip Kapleau, and working closely with him on three of his books.

After completing twelve years of koan training under Philip Kapleau Roshi, Roshi Kjolhede spent a year on pilgrimage through Japan, China, India, Tibet, and Taiwan. In 1986 he was installed by Roshi Kapleau as his Dharma-successor and, the following year, Abbot of the Center. Since then he has conducted hundreds of retreats (sesshin), most of seven days, in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Mexico. He has published numerous articles and travels widely to participate in Buddhist teachers’ conferences. He now devotes most of his time to teaching at the Rochester Zen Center and conducting sesshin at Chapin Mill, its country retreat center.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/bodhin-kjolhede-bio/feed/0Kjolhede, Sonja Sunyahttp://sweepingzen.com/sunya-kjolhede-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/sunya-kjolhede-bio/#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 09:27:44 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=758Sensei Sunya Kjolhede began practicing Zen with Roshi Philip Kapleau at the Rochester Zen Center in 1970, becoming a formal student and later a disciple. She continued her formal training with her teacher while raising four children. She also trained in Clinical Pastoral Education and worked as a hospital chaplain, later working with children as ...

Sensei Sunya Kjolhede began practicing Zen with Roshi Philip Kapleau at the Rochester Zen Center in 1970, becoming a formal student and later a disciple. She continued her formal training with her teacher while raising four children. She also trained in Clinical Pastoral Education and worked as a hospital chaplain, later working with children as a storyteller in an alternative school.

On 6 August 1994, in a private ceremony, Roshi Kapleau sanctioned her to teach; one year later, on 13 August 1995, she was ordained as a Zen priest and publically re-sanctioned. Sunya and her husband Lawson Sachter (also a Dharma heir of Philip Kapleau), founded Windhorse Zen Community in upstate New York in 2002, and in 2003 they relocated to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, near Asheville. They moved into their present 16-acre facility on March 1, 2004.

At Windhorse, Sunya co-leads a residential training center that integrates the concentrated energy of Rinzai Zen and koan work with the deeply rooted faith-mind of Soto practice. An important element of the training at Windhorse is learning ways to live more sustainably, in community, with each other and all beings. In addition to her teaching duties in the U.S., Sunya serves as spiritual director of the Bodhidharma Zen Center in Falenica, a suburb of Warsaw, Poland. She travels there twice a year to work with the Polish sangha, leading Zen retreats (sesshin) and workshops.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/sunya-kjolhede-bio/feed/0Low, Alberthttp://sweepingzen.com/albert-low-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/albert-low-bio/#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 15:40:05 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=860Albert Low (b. December 16, 1928) is a Zen teacher based in Canada, the resident teacher and director of the Montréal Zen Center. Low is 82 years of age and was a business executive for the first half of his life employed as a senior human resource executive in South Africa and later in Canada. He has ...

]]>Albert Low (b. December 16, 1928) is a Zen teacher based in Canada, the resident teacher and director of the Montréal Zen Center. Low is 82 years of age and was a business executive for the first half of his life employed as a senior human resource executive in South Africa and later in Canada.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Philosophy and was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree by Queen’s University, Ontario for academic achievement and community service.

He has practiced Zen Buddhism intensely for over 45 years. In 1976 he retired from the business world to study and teach Zen Buddhism on a full time basis. He spent three years on the staff of the Rochester Zen Center. He has been the teacher and director of the Montréal Zen Center since 1979.

He is very widely read in Western and Eastern philosophy and psychology and Western science, and has spent many years as a psychological counselor.

He has given many TV and radio broadcasts, has written numerous articles for magazines and, because of this, is well known in Europe, Australia and throughout North America.

He has written a number of books which have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Turkish.

External links

Video

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/albert-low-bio/feed/0Odland, Kanjahttp://sweepingzen.com/odland-kanja/
http://sweepingzen.com/odland-kanja/#commentsSat, 23 Oct 2010 04:03:29 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=11040Kanja Odland Sensei (born 1963) is a Zen Buddhist priest and teacher, in the Philip Kapleau lineage. She was born in Stockholm 1963. She started her Zen training in 1984, as a student of both Roshi Philip Kapleau and his successor Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. She was ordained as a priest in 1999. She also finished ...

]]>Kanja Odland Sensei (born 1963) is a Zen Buddhist priest and teacher, in the Philip Kapleau lineage. She was born in Stockholm 1963. She started her Zen training in 1984, as a student of both Roshi Philip Kapleau and his successor Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. She was ordained as a priest in 1999. She also finished her koan training that year, and was given permission to teach by Roshi Kjolhede in 2001. She has been teaching full time since then. Together with her co-teacher Sante Poromaa Sensei, she has been instrumental in the creation of a full-time training temple in rural Sweden called Zengården, as well as the growth and development of a network of City Zen Centers in Sweden, Finland and Scotland. Odland offers regular sesshin (meditation retreats), in English and regularly gives public talks on Zen.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/odland-kanja/feed/0Packer, Tonihttp://sweepingzen.com/packer-toni/
http://sweepingzen.com/packer-toni/#commentsTue, 01 Mar 2011 09:56:49 +0000http://sweepingzen.com/?p=23499This biography is currently not listed on Sweeping Zen. Feel free to add it to the database.*Note: If you are not the subject or a representative, please write the biography in your own words. Copying materials from another website without express permission will result in the entry not being updated. Toni Packer on Amazon.com The ...

*Note: If you are not the subject or a representative, please write the biography in your own words. Copying materials from another website without express permission will result in the entry not being updated.

Toni Packer on Amazon.com

The Work of This Moment

In this compelling collection of talks, essays, interviews, and letters, Toni Packer presents a radically simple and original approach to spiritual growth free from religious authority, doctrine, symbolism, and ceremony. A former Zen teacher and student of Krishnamurti’s work, Toni Packer goes beyond traditional religion and explores with the reader the root of human attachments and the source of suffering, opening the way to compassion.

In The Silent Question, Packer provides fresh insights on using the experiences of life that are raw, messy, painful, and sometimes full of laughter, to open a way to compassion. She urges us to let go of our thoughts and to sit “in the stillness of not knowing” in order to reflect upon the essential question of who we are. Packer encourages us to discover that life, energy, and insight come from the questioning, the looking, the listening.

In this compelling collection of talks, interviews, and letters, Toni Packer provides a comprehensive overview of the path of meditative inquiry—a nondenominational approach to spiritual growth that emphasizes the direct experience of the present moment. “The immense challenge for each one of us,” Packer writes, “is can we live our lives, at least for moments at a time, in the wonder of presence that is the creative source of everything?” She shows how we can transform fear, anger, guilt, and attachment to our self-image through simple, direct awareness. Having recently lost her husband of fifty years, Packer also speaks with candor and tenderness about the convulsions of a grieving heart and the peace that undivided awareness can bring.

Toni Packer began studying Zen in 1967 with Roshi Philip Kapleau (author of The Three Pillars of Zen) at the Rochester Zen Center and was eventually named his successor. Seeing the potentially destructive effects of relying too much on tradition, however, she did not accept the position. Packer is strongly influenced by the teachings of Krishnamurti and has turned away from the traditional forms and hierarchies that are prevalent in many Buddhist schools. Her approach is appealing to many Westerners who find institutionalized practices such as chanting, bowing, and burning incense to be alien and unnecessary.

To read this book is to encounter the essence of our lives and our everyday concerns. Toni Packer shines her gentle light on fear, compassion, impermanence, attraction, prejudice, enlightenment, and much more as she invites us into our own light of discovery. As she says, “In truth we are not separate from each other, or from the world, from the whole earth, the sun or moon or billions of stars, not separate from the entire universe. Listening silently in silent wonderment, without knowing anything, there is just one mysteriously palpitating aliveness.”

This book celebrates the flowering of women in American Buddhism. Lenore Friedman set out to explore this phenomenon by interviewing some of the remarkable women who were teaching Buddhism in the United States. The seventeen women she writes about vary in background, personality, and form of teaching. Together the represent the growing presence and influence of women teachers in America—a development that will surely affect Buddhism in the West for years to come. This revised edition includes a new section describing developments in these women’s lives and work since the book’s first publication in 1987.